Dangerous Gifts (47 page)

“Because I was an Avatar, see, well, I can’t have children. Not ever. I don’t even know if that matters to you, if I’ve any right to think it might, but...”

Before I could finish he pulled me up into a fierce hug, awkwardly, across his knees, and I heard him gasp with pain.

“Hargur!” I stood up.

“I’m all right,” he growled.

“Get on the bed, let me look.”

He lay down, and I checked, but the bandages were firm and no blood seeped around them. “Idiot.”

“So’re you. Come here,” he said, pulling me down and wrapping his arms around me. I put my head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat, strong and steady. “I’m glad you told me,” he said. “Is that enough? For now?”

“Yes.”

“You’re shaking,” he said.

“I’m frightened.”

“Of what?”

“Of this, maybe. Of us.”

He pulled back and looked at me, brushing my hair out of my face. “Why?”

“I...”
The past,
I wanted to say.
I have too much of it, and it keeps coming back
. But I remembered Lobik, and Enthemmerlee.
The future will slip away while we lick over old wounds.

Lobik was gone. He and Enthemmerlee had been robbed of their particular future. And the same might happen to us. But did that mean I had to waste what we had, worrying? “Oh, sod it,” I said. “Give us a kiss, Chief.”

“Gladly,” he said. And he did.

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

G
AIE
S
EBOLD WAS
born in the US to an American father and English mother, and has lived in the UK most of her life. She now resides in leafy suburbia with her partner, writer David Gullen; a daft cat, and a lot of plants and books.

She began writing shortly after learning to read, and has produced a large number of words, many of them different.

She has worked as a cleaner, secretary, till-monkey, stage-tour-manager, editor, and charity administrator; she now writes full time and runs occasional writing workshops.

She is an obsessive reader, enthusiastically inefficient gardener and occasional poet.

Find out more at
www.gaiesebold.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T
HANKS TO THE
guys at Solaris for endless patience, catching all the stuff I should have caught, and helping me in my struggle with semicolon addiction.

Thanks also to the ever generous T Party Writers, to almost all of whom I now owe critiques…sorry, guys. Soon. Honest.

And to the staff of the RSA, especially the Fellowship department, who, during the years I worked there, generously put up with my: obsession with apostrophe placement; hatred of exclamation marks; discussion of disembowellings before coffee and moaning about the arguments I was having with the voices in my head. Without calling the men in white coats even once. Thank you.

A heroine who really gets up close and personal!

Babylon Steel, ex-sword-for-hire, ex... other things, runs The Red Lantern, the best brothel in the city. She’s got elves using sex magic upstairs, S&M in the basement and a large green troll cooking breakfast in the kitchen, and she’d love you to visit, except...

She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, girls are disappearing, and if she can’t pay her taxes, Babylon’s going to lose the Lantern. She’d given up the mercenary life, but when the mysterious Darask Fain pays her to fi nd a missing heiress, she has to take the job. And then her past starts to catch up with her in other, more dangerous ways.

Witty and fresh, Sebold delivers the most exciting fantasy debut in years.

‘Ingenious, gripping, and full of pleasures on every level. Exceptional.’

— Mike Carey,
New York Times
Bestselling author of
The Unwritten

www.solarisbooks.com

The warrior woman known as Infidel is legendary for her superhuman strength and skin tough as chain mail. She’s made few friends during her career as a sword-for-hire, and many powerful enemies. Following the death of her closest companion, Infidel finds herself weary of life as a mercenary and sets her eyes on one final prize that will allow her to live out the rest of her days in luxury, the priceless treasure trove of Greatshadow.

Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire. His malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every flickering candle, patiently waiting to devour victims careless with even the smallest flame. The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the quest who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who dream only of Greatshadow’s vast wealth. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?

Greatshadow
is the first book in an exciting new adventure series from a master of dragon fantasy.

www.solarisbooks.com

“What’s the first thing you think of when I say ‘angel’?” asked Mallory.

Alice shrugged. “I don’t know... guns?”

Alice isn’t having the best of days - late for work, missed her bus, and now she’s getting rained on - but it’s about to get worse.

The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever. That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem he doesn’t want to fix - Alice will learn the truth about her own history... and why the angels want to send her to hell.

What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding - and can she trust either side?

‘Dark, enticing and so sharp the pages could cut you,
Blood and Feathers
is a must-read.’

Sarah Pinborough

www.solarisbooks.com